I love Miku and I love vocaloids but no, I would not see Miku live. What I love about Miku is that it's canned music and it allows people who can't sing to design their own vocal tracks and use them in their compositions. That's kind of the opposite of live music.

Miku has over 100,000 original indie songs spanning almost every style and genre, from show tunes to death metal, from light jazz to ska punk and trance. If you take the time there's a good chance you'll find something you like. I'll link a few of my faves below.

What you have to understand about Miku is that she is a massively crowdsourced cultural phenomenon. Her character is freely licensed for noncommercial use, so there are tens of thousands of people making Miku music, art, and animations. Essentially her fans make almost all her music, and social media helps pick the ones that are best. Miku represents an entirely new way to create, popularize, and distribute art and music. Props to Gaga for knowing a good thing when she sees it.

I don't understand it. It sounds like someone programmed a Japanese Siri to sing. There's no emotion, barely any inflection. It's empty.

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I would respectfully argue that the purpose of art is to evoke an emotional response in the listener, not in the artist. Music is inherently emotional, and what I've learned is that you really don't need some over-acting singer emoting at you to make an emotional connection with a piece of music.

It surprises many people to learn that it's incredibly common for Miku fans to have very powerful emotional responses to Miku's singing. I know I've been moved to tears by Miku more in the past year, than in 40 years of listening to human singers.

I think this is because instead of being cast in the role of a spectator of somebody else's emotions, Miku gives the listener freedom to focus on their own emotions. The audience projects their feelings onto the singer rather than the other way around.

The sense of community fan involvement is also a factor. Miku's music, clothes, even her personality have been quite literally created and shaped by the fans - so you get a level of investment and attachment that is hard to find elsewhere.

I don't understand it. It sounds like someone programmed a Japanese Siri to sing. There's no emotion, barely any inflection. It's empty.

Click to expand...

I would respectfully argue that the purpose of art is to evoke an emotional response in the listener, not in the artist. Music is inherently emotional, and what I've learned is that you really don't need some over-acting singer emoting at you to make an emotional connection with a piece of music.

It surprises many people to learn that it's incredibly common for Miku fans to have very powerful emotional responses to Miku's singing. I know I've been moved to tears by Miku more in the past year, than in 40 years of listening to human singers.

I think this is because instead of being cast in the role of a spectator of somebody else's emotions, Miku gives the listener freedom to focus on their own emotions. The audience projects their feelings onto the singer rather than the other way around.

The sense of community fan involvement is also a factor. Miku's music, clothes, even her personality have been quite literally created and shaped by the fans - so you get a level of investment and attachment that is hard to find elsewhere.

Click to expand...

created by the fans for the fans. This is what we are going for. Many so called "artists" of this time dont write their own lyrics and we owe a lot of credit to their amazing voices to a thing like auto-tune and with auto-tune they will say "thats "MY" voice your listening to" when in fact its their voice being altered by a computer. With vocaloid there is no auto-tune and no lies behind what you are listening to because the fans know exactly where the voice is coming from.